As the environment starts to fail from global warming, unusual natural disasters, and rising sea levels, we are told one thing we can do to help is recycle. But throwing waste into the recycling is not as helpful as everyone leads to be. 

Overall, it can be very hard to recycle products because the item needs to meet so many requirements. The main requirement being that the product has no remnants of anything that is not recyclable. For example paper plates are not recyclable because of the food residue on the plates.  

At Perry nothing is recycled, with such strict regulations with what can be recycled it is not possible for janitorial staff to check to make sure everything is in the bin 

Rhonda Duering, a former English teacher, used to collect all the recycling, even specialty recycling and bring it to the plant. But now that Duering is retired, recycling is being done on Wednesday by the special needs program. They go around to each classroom and pick up the recycling bin, or recycling the teachers have collected. But during the rest of the week the recycling is thrown away by the janitorial staff. AP environmental science teacher Jill Kenyon said she was disappointed about the lack of things getting recycled. “That makes me really sad because kids who think they are doing something beneficial are not. I take my recycling home because I had a feeling” said Kenyon. All recycling bins in classrooms are just thrown with the rest of the trash. 

Recycling is only one of Perry’s flaws when it comes to being environmentally friendly. One of the biggest issues is the amount of paper waste created when giving work to students. “Teachers can work to make more efficient copies by making double-sided copies, printing copies that can be used year to year on color paper and keeping it, using half sheets, and doing as much work online as possible,” said Kenyon. 

Overall it’s not just Perry that is not environmentally friendly, it’s the whole world. We as a society try to do what is most convenient for us without thinking about the consequences. But those consequences are coming back to get us, and it’s currently starting to happen. “We tend to move at a pace where we ignore most of the environmental problems that have been happening  for decades, and it’s going to reach a point where it won’t be fixable anymore,” said Kenyon about changes happening all over the world. 

The environment is our generation’s biggest issue to try and handle. As it gets worse people are not willing to give up small convinces just to be able to help. But we can make those changes now to help in the future. One easy change is remembering there are 3 Rs related to helping the environment: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Recycle is the last R for a reason, it is not as helpful as reducing or reusing. By reducing not as much waste has to go back into the environment. Then reusing items so they do not become waste quickly, as well as not creating more waste by using an unnecessary amount. 

As helpful as recycling is, there are so many different things you can do to help the environment by changing one thing in your day to day life. Here is a website to give you some tips to start. 

https://pelacase.com/blogs/news/100-easy-ways-to-be-more-eco-friendly